Copley Square was bustling with excitement Oct. 26 as the Boston Book Festival drew in bibliophiles and literary enthusiasts from all corners of the city, transforming into a meeting ground where attendees found opportunities to connect and expand their horizons.
From 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., the festival featured book signings, costume characters, author talks and live music. The festival’s 203 presenters allowed for a day of education and discussion. Roxy’s Grilled Cheese and Moyzilla sold food to festival attendees as they visited the vendors.
“I go here every year because I just love the group of writers, and not only writers, but book lovers and people who love to talk about books coming here,” said Madison McMahon, a second-year writing, literature and publishing major at Emerson College. “It’s just really exciting. The vibes are really good.”
While the festival drew book lovers from across Boston on the hunt for their newest read, it was primarily a space for professionals within the literary community to network and expand their outreach. Local literary organizations, magazines and independent writers in and around Boston use large publicized events like the Boston Book Festival to sustain themselves.
Local book store Brattle Book Shop was positioned on one end of the festival. Books were layered across tables and shelves within their tent, along with a cart of $5 books just outside. However, after leaving this station and further exploring the festival, opportunities to purchase books became limited.
Instead, the red awnings of tents displayed the names of literary organizations, nonprofits and magazines. The Boston Globe, the Boston Public Library, Mass Poetry, WBUR and GBH were among those present. Many had interactive opportunities to obtain memorabilia, such as a spin-wheel, black-out poetry stations, coloring book pages and pop-up poems. Pamphlets and business cards spread like wildfire throughout Copley Square.
“I expected more books. It seems like there’s more, they’re selling access to different things, other than just books, so it’s not what I was expecting,” said attendee John Pattas.
While the festival was not bursting with books, as its name may have implied, it was full of writers, poets and novelists.
“The thing for independent authors is we don’t have a big money machine from New York behind us,” said Dale Phillips, author of the “Scary Books and Murderous Crooks” mystery series. “We have to do it all ourselves.”
Phillips was one of various local writers marketing his books in shifts at the Mystery Writers of America booth for the New England chapter.
“The Boston Book Festival is great because you have readers from all over the city coming by to find out,” Phillips said. “They stop by the booth and you get to converse with them. It’s brilliant exposure.”
Matt Welch attended the festival as an ambassador for GBH, a public television and radio station in the Boston area. His mission was to meet people who may be interested while also educating people who don’t know about them.
“I love engaging with the people,” Welch said. “GBH is really well-received here and we have a lot of great conversations. It’s a nice time.”
“It’s always good to have people in Boston learn more about the magazine,” said Cameron Avery, assistant editor at Boston Review. We’re able to get a lot of new subscriptions and memberships, as well as just talking to people in the broader literary community in Boston.”
Another tent, Wondermore, an author and illustrator programming organization in Boston Public Schools, did outreach at the festival. The organization hosts author visits and every child in the schools they visit then gets a copy of one of the books. The selected school creates a wish list of books for its school library, which is promoted at the festival to ensure its wishlist gets fully funded. Pam Yosca, program director at Wondermore, shared how she was at the festival to promote the organization.
“We’re a literacy organization, so this is our world,” Yosca said.
While many did not walk away with an armful of actual books, opportunities to engage with the literary scene in Boston were plentiful. The primary objective of the Boston Book Festival may not be to cater to the general public, but rather, to propagate and expand Boston’s literary community as a whole.
“I look forward to it every year,” McMahon said.
The Huntington News is dedicated to serving the Northeastern University community with original, professional reporting and creating an environment in which student journalists can learn from one another. Support an independent, free press at Northeastern University with your donation today.
